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Sunday, November 22, 2009

Daddy’s Diapering Bloopers

After welcoming our first child, Hannah Elisabeth, into our home on July 27th, my wife and I decided to make every effort we could so my wife could stay home this year. However, this required an in-depth evaluation of our budget and pulling in the purse strings!

Several of our friends and family members use cloth diapers and love it! When I initially suggested switching to cloth diapers, my wife the “neat freak,” matter-of-factly told me there was no way she could handle it. I figured I would leave the decision to her since she would be responsible for the majority of the diaper changes.

However, after seeing a few of our friends’ children with their little (and adorable) cloth-diapered bottoms, my wife began to reconsider. She thought this cost-effective alternative may not be so bad after all. After some thorough research and talking to several experienced cloth diapering friends, she ordered a trial pack of 12 different diapers.

When the diapers arrived she was excited to educate me on how all the diapers worked. We watched a YouTube video together of how to use prefolds and thus our adventures in cloth diapering began. Since then, my wife has mastered an effective full time cloth diapering system with only 12 diapers in only a week and a half!

I, on the other hand, have had a few daddy bloopers.

First Strike: My wife called at work to inform me that our daughter had a blowout and it was my fault. Apparently I put on a FuzziBunz diaper without snapping the second snaps around her thighs.

Second Strike: My wife sent a photo of my little one with her “crack” showing because I didn’t make sure the GroBaby One Size diaper was pulled up high enough.

Third Strike: I put the Flip insert upside down, I put a poopy diaper in the pail without spraying it off, and I left the disposable wet wipes (we haven’t converted to cloth wipes yet) inside the cloth diaper.

OOPS! I’ve been advised she is going to have to schedule a cloth diaper training session for me.

bumGenius One Size 3.0 Pocket diapers: Hannah wears these at night. Every morning when she wore disposables she would have a huge blowout. This diaper has kept her dry through the night and successfully contained her big morning messes.

GroBaby One Size diapers: My wife loves the shell for this diaper; but we wish the inserts had a more stay dry feel like the bumGenius pocket diaper.

Flip diapers: We hope this diaper will the combination of everything we life from the two previous diapers, but we’re still experimenting.

My husband does well with cloth diapers and putting them on our baby. (I have let him off the hook with washing and folding. :) ) He usually asks me what type of diaper I want on the baby. His favorite option? "Changer's choice." lol He usually picks a snapped fitted or a bg 3.0.

Great blog, dada! I got a good laugh at the exposed heiny! Before coverting to the cloth wipes, my hubby also (very often) put the used wipes in the dipes and into the diaper pail... You're not alone there. That's one of the reason we made the switch to cloth wipes too.

I was always the one making bloopers at first, I never got the disposables pulled up high enough on our newborn. Cloth is so much easier to use and now our newborn is a one year old! She still sports a little crack now and then, though!

We ordered a trial pack, too! I loved trying all the different kinds of diapers! We are also doing full-time with a small stash. Just means lots of laundry! We're hoping to get some more in the future!Good for you for doing diaper duty!

I love this post and I am going to tell my husband about it. We are still working on mastering your "strike #2". I figure it will finally sink in for him if he has to change a diaper after not pulling the diaper up all the way :)

Wow a daddy that suggested cloth!! Mine is ok with it, but if we have any disposables he will use those when I am not around. And spray them um no I come in the bathroom with a poopy diaper rolled up on the sink with wipes in it... He won't even attemt. Well like twice he dumped a solid in, but no spray.

My husband is pretty terrific. He is getting the diapering down pretty well now! Hannah's loves the conversations they have on the changing table.

We do enjoy the Flip, but we've decided to go with the Bum Genius diapers for now. We have two Flip day packs in our stash, as we've decided they are good for day trips. They are not great for naps and nights. I also ordered a Rumparooz diaper to try.

I agree! Good for you for being a part of the cloth diapering! My husband almost NEVER ventures near the changing table but one of the times he did, I picked up our son (thankfully only a minute or two later) and somehow my husband had half our son's privates sticking out the leg opening of a bumGenius 3.0!!! Also thankfully, Daddy doesn't get the diapers on very snugly, so son hadn't noticed any discomfort yet. :) But I sorta wish I would have taken a pic of that daddy-blooper for posterity.

Oh yes! I think we have all had some cloth diaper bloopers! Way to go for trying. My DH spent the first year as far away from the cloth diapers as possible... now he does help with our daughter. I think he appreciates the cloth diapers now.

This is hilarious...My husband has finally accepted that we will be cloth diapering however, I do all the changing still....& when I work on Fridays he uses disposables, but since it's only one day a week I don't mind. Maybe by the time our 2nd child comes along he'll jump in. (Note:my husband helps in so many other ways..but I am still trying to fig. out the whole cloth thing myself)

I am so glad you got your wife to switch. Cloth diapers are great and for me an addiction. I want to try them all! I wish I could convince all my friends to switch, but they just don't seem to understand how easy it is, how much money they would save, and how much waste they would reduce!

Well, if it makes you feel better, CD mommies make lots of mistakes, too!! =) I just think they don't get talked about too much since we do so much of the diapering overall, we have more hits than misses. Good work!

Way to get your wife on board with CDing! The best way to be successful with a commitment to cloth diapering is to be on a great team! You may have had a rough start, but it seems you already have a great handle on the details. I'm gonna wait till our LO is born to show my husband the CD ropes-it'll be so much more interesting with an actual baby!

My poor daughter had soaking wet pants while we were waiting on getting the car's oil changed because her daddy forgot to put an insert in her diaper. I learned from that day on that I needed to make sure that EVERY SINGLE diaper in our house was stuffed and ready to go..because it was almost guaranteed he would grab the one that wasn't...

Don't worry, my DH has had similar experiences. He does OK with diapers with Aplix, but can't handle snaps. When I got home after being out for a few hours our little girl had gone through three outfits because "the diapers leaked." I suspect user error, but he did a great job keeping her entertained, fed, and changed. Never mind the mismatched clothes and the dresser contents strewn about the room, the kid was clean, safe and happy and that's what matters.

Good for you for trying diapers with snap closure. My husband skips those in favor of the bumGenius with aplix! I find it funny since we started with prefolds and pins! :o) Mostly, I am just glad he changes diapers period!

It's cool to hear from the dads! My husband does great with cloth. At first he was fine with switching to cloth but wasn't to enthused about it, but now he tells our friends about our diapers and will pull them out to show people!

It's so great to hear of dads who are supportive of cloth diapering. It was my husband's idea as well, and it was his interest that got me researching and brought me here. We've just started, and I'm sure have many of those bloopers ahead!